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her as an old acquaintance should, and wished them joy with all my might

of heart.

‘Dear me,’ said Traddles, ‘what a delightful re-union this is! You are

so extremely brown, my dear Copperfield! God bless my soul, how happy I

am!’

‘And so am I,’ said I.

‘And I am sure I am!’ said the blushing and laughing Sophy.

‘We are all as happy as possible!’ said Traddles. ‘Even the girls are

happy. Dear me, I declare I forgot them!’

‘Forgot?’ said I.

‘The girls,’ said Traddles. ‘Sophy’s sisters. They are staying with us.

They have come to have a peep at London. The fact is, when--was it you

that tumbled upstairs, Copperfield?’

‘It was,’ said I, laughing.

‘Well then, when you tumbled upstairs,’ said Traddles, ‘I was romping

with the girls. In point of fact, we were playing at Puss in the Corner.

But as that wouldn’t do in Westminster Hall, and as it wouldn’t look

quite professional if they were seen by a client, they decamped. And

they are now--listening, I have no doubt,’ said Traddles, glancing at

the door of another room.

‘I am sorry,’ said I, laughing afresh, ‘to have occasioned such a

dispersion.’

‘Upon my word,’ rejoined Traddles, greatly delighted, ‘if you had seen

them running away, and running back again, after you had knocked, to

pick up the combs they had dropped out of their hair, and going on in

the maddest manner, you wouldn’t have said so. My love, will you fetch

the girls?’

Sophy tripped away, and we heard her received in the adjoining room with

a peal of laughter.

‘Really musical, isn’t it, my dear Copperfield?’ said Traddles. ‘It’s

very agreeable to hear. It quite lights up these old rooms. To an

unfortunate bachelor of a fellow who has lived alone all his life, you

know, it’s positively delicious. It’s charming. Poor things, they have

had a great loss in Sophy--who, I do assure you, Copperfield is, and

ever was, the dearest girl!--and it gratifies me beyond expression

to find them in such good spirits. The society of girls is a very

delightful thing, Copperfield. It’s not professional, but it’s very

delightful.’

Observing that he slightly faltered, and comprehending that in the

goodness of his heart he was fearful of giving me some pain by what he

had said, I expressed my concurrence with a heartiness that evidently

relieved and pleased him greatly.

‘But then,’ said Traddles, ‘our domestic arrangements are, to say

the truth, quite unprofessional altogether, my dear Copperfield. Even

Sophy’s being here, is unprofessional. And we have no other place of

abode. We have put to sea in a cockboat, but we are quite prepared to

rough it. And Sophy’s an extraordinary manager! You’ll be surprised how

those girls are stowed away. I am sure I hardly know how it’s done!’

‘Are many of the young ladies with you?’ I inquired.

‘The eldest, the Beauty is here,’ said Traddles, in a low confidential

voice, ‘Caroline. And Sarah’s here--the one I mentioned to you as having

something the matter with her spine, you know. Immensely better! And the

two youngest that Sophy educated are with us. And Louisa’s here.’

‘Indeed!’ cried I.

‘Yes,’ said Traddles. ‘Now the whole set--I mean the chambers--is only

three rooms; but Sophy arranges for the girls in the most wonderful way,

and they sleep as comfortably as possible. Three in that room,’ said

Traddles, pointing. ‘Two in that.’

I could not help glancing round, in search of the accommodation

remaining for Mr. and Mrs. Traddles. Traddles understood me.

‘Well!’ said Traddles, ‘we are prepared to rough it, as I said just now,

and we did improvise a bed last week, upon the floor here. But there’s

a little room in the roof--a very nice room, when you’re up there--which

Sophy papered herself, to surprise me; and that’s our room at present.

It’s a capital little gipsy sort of place. There’s quite a view from

it.’

‘And you are happily married at last, my dear Traddles!’ said I. ‘How

rejoiced I am!’

‘Thank you, my dear Copperfield,’ said Traddles, as we shook hands

once more. ‘Yes, I am as happy as it’s possible to be. There’s your old

friend, you see,’ said Traddles, nodding triumphantly at the flower-pot

and stand; ‘and there’s the table with the marble top! All the other

furniture is plain and serviceable, you perceive. And as to plate, Lord

bless you, we haven’t so much as a tea-spoon.’

‘All to be earned?’ said I, cheerfully.

‘Exactly so,’ replied Traddles, ‘all to be earned. Of course we have

something in the shape of tea-spoons, because we stir our tea. But

they’re Britannia metal.’

‘The silver will be the brighter when it comes,’ said I.

‘The very thing we say!’ cried Traddles. ‘You see, my dear Copperfield,’

falling again into the low confidential tone, ‘after I had delivered my

argument in DOE dem. JIPES versus WIGZIELL, which did me great service

with the profession, I went down into Devonshire, and had some serious

conversation in private with the Reverend Horace. I dwelt upon the fact

that Sophy--who I do assure you, Copperfield, is the dearest girl!--’

‘I am certain she is!’ said I.

‘She is, indeed!’ rejoined Traddles. ‘But I am afraid I am wandering

from the subject. Did I mention the Reverend Horace?’

‘You said that you dwelt upon the fact--’

‘True! Upon the fact that Sophy and I had been engaged for a long

period, and that Sophy, with the permission of her parents, was more

than content to take me--in short,’ said Traddles, with his old frank

smile, ‘on our present Britannia-metal footing. Very well. I then

proposed to the Reverend Horace--who is a most excellent clergyman,

Copperfield, and ought to be a Bishop; or at least ought to have enough

to live upon, without pinching himself--that if I could turn the corner,

say of two hundred and fifty pounds, in one year; and could see my

way pretty clearly to that, or something better, next year; and could

plainly furnish a little place like this, besides; then, and in that

case, Sophy and I should be united. I took the liberty of representing

that we had been patient for a good many years; and that the

circumstance of Sophy’s being extraordinarily useful at home, ought not

to operate with her affectionate parents, against her establishment in

life--don’t you see?’

‘Certainly it ought not,’ said I.

‘I am glad you think so, Copperfield,’ rejoined Traddles, ‘because,

without any imputation on the Reverend Horace, I do think parents, and

brothers, and so forth, are sometimes rather selfish in such cases.

Well! I also pointed out, that my most earnest desire was, to be useful

to the family; and that if I got on in the world, and anything should

happen to him--I refer to the Reverend Horace--’

‘I understand,’ said I.

‘--Or to Mrs. Crewler--it would be the utmost gratification of my

wishes, to be a parent to the girls. He replied in a most admirable

manner, exceedingly flattering to my feelings, and undertook to obtain

the consent of Mrs. Crewler to this arrangement. They had a dreadful

time of it with her. It mounted from her legs into her chest, and then

into her head--’

‘What mounted?’ I asked.

‘Her grief,’ replied Traddles, with a serious look. ‘Her feelings

generally. As I mentioned on a former occasion, she is a very superior

woman, but has lost the use of her limbs. Whatever occurs to harass

her, usually settles in her legs; but on this occasion it mounted to the

chest, and then to the head, and, in short, pervaded the whole system

in a most alarming manner. However, they brought her through it by

unremitting and affectionate attention; and we were married yesterday

six weeks. You have no idea what a Monster I felt, Copperfield, when I

saw the whole family crying and fainting away in every direction! Mrs.

Crewler couldn’t see me before we left--couldn’t forgive me, then, for

depriving her of her child--but she is a good creature, and has done so

since. I had a delightful letter from her, only this morning.’

‘And in short, my dear friend,’ said I, ‘you feel as blest as you

deserve to feel!’

‘Oh! That’s your partiality!’ laughed Traddles. ‘But, indeed, I am in a

most enviable state. I work hard, and read Law insatiably. I get up at

five every morning, and don’t mind it at all. I hide the girls in the

daytime, and make merry with them in the evening. And I assure you I am

quite sorry that they are going home on Tuesday, which is the day before

the first day of Michaelmas Term. But here,’ said Traddles, breaking off

in his confidence, and speaking aloud, ‘ARE the girls! Mr. Copperfield,

Miss Crewler--Miss Sarah--Miss Louisa--Margaret and Lucy!’

They were a perfect nest of roses; they looked so wholesome and fresh.

They were all pretty, and Miss Caroline was very handsome; but there was

a loving, cheerful, fireside quality in Sophy’s bright looks, which was

better than that, and which assured me that my friend had chosen well.

We all sat round the fire; while the sharp boy, who I now divined had

lost his breath in putting the papers out, cleared them away again, and

produced the tea-things. After that, he retired for the night, shutting

the outer door upon us with a bang. Mrs. Traddles, with perfect pleasure

and composure beaming from her household eyes, having made the tea, then

quietly made the toast as she sat in a corner by the fire.

She had seen Agnes, she told me while she was toasting. ‘Tom’ had taken

her down into Kent for a wedding trip, and there she had seen my aunt,

too; and both my aunt and Agnes were well, and they had all talked of

nothing but me. ‘Tom’ had never had me out of his thoughts, she really

believed, all the time I had been away. ‘Tom’ was the authority for

everything. ‘Tom’ was evidently the idol of her life; never to be shaken

on his pedestal by any commotion; always to be believed in, and done

homage to with the whole faith of her heart, come what might.

The deference which both she and Traddles showed towards the Beauty,

pleased me very much. I don’t know that I thought it very reasonable;

but I thought it very delightful, and essentially a part of their

character. If Traddles ever for an instant missed the tea-spoons that

were still to be won, I have no doubt it was when he handed the Beauty

her tea. If his sweet-tempered wife could have got up any self-assertion

against anyone, I am satisfied it could only have been because she was

the Beauty’s sister. A few slight indications of a rather petted and

capricious manner, which I observed in the Beauty, were manifestly

considered, by Traddles and his wife, as her birthright and natural

endowment. If she had been born a Queen Bee, and they labouring Bees,

they could not have been more satisfied of that.

But their self-forgetfulness charmed me. Their pride in these girls, and

their submission of themselves to all their whims, was the pleasantest

little testimony to their own worth I could have desired to see. If

Traddles were addressed as ‘a darling’, once in the course of that

evening; and besought to bring something here, or carry something there,

or take something up, or put something down, or find something, or fetch

something, he was so addressed, by one or other of his sisters-in-law,

at least twelve times in an hour. Neither could they do anything without

Sophy. Somebody’s hair fell down, and nobody but Sophy could put it up.

Somebody forgot how a particular tune went, and nobody but Sophy could

hum that tune right. Somebody wanted to recall the name of a place in

Devonshire, and only Sophy knew it. Something was wanted to be written

home, and Sophy alone could be trusted to write before breakfast in

the morning. Somebody broke down in a piece of knitting, and no one but

Sophy was able to put the defaulter in the right direction. They were

entire mistresses of the place, and Sophy and Traddles waited on them.

How many children Sophy could have taken care of in her time, I can’t

imagine; but she seemed to be famous for knowing every sort of song that

ever was addressed to a child in the English tongue; and she sang dozens

to order with the clearest little voice in the world, one after another

(every sister issuing directions for a different tune, and the Beauty

generally striking in last), so that I was quite fascinated. The best

of all was, that, in the midst of their exactions, all the sisters had

a great tenderness and respect both for Sophy and Traddles. I am sure,

when I took my leave, and Traddles was coming out to walk with me to the

coffee-house, I thought I had never seen an obstinate head of hair, or

any other head of hair, rolling about in such a shower of kisses.

Altogether, it was a scene I could not help dwelling on with pleasure,

for a long time after I got back and had wished Traddles good night. If

I had beheld a thousand roses blowing in a top set of chambers, in that

withered Gray’s Inn, they could not have brightened it half so much.

The idea of those Devonshire girls, among the dry law-stationers and the

attorneys’ offices; and of the tea and toast, and children’s songs, in

that grim atmosphere of pounce and parchment, red-tape, dusty wafers,

ink-jars, brief and draft paper, law reports, writs, declarations, and

bills of costs; seemed almost as pleasantly fanciful as if I had

dreamed that the Sultan’s famous family had been admitted on the roll of

attorneys, and had brought the talking bird, the singing tree, and the

golden water into Gray’s Inn Hall. Somehow, I found that I had taken

leave of Traddles for the night, and come back to the coffee-house, with

a great change in my despondency about him. I began to think he would

get on, in spite of all the many orders of chief waiters in England.

Drawing a chair before one of the coffee-room fires to think about him

at my leisure, I gradually fell from the consideration of his happiness

to tracing prospects in the live-coals, and to thinking, as they broke

and changed, of the principal vicissitudes and separations that had

marked my life. I had not seen a coal fire, since I had left England

three years ago: though many a wood fire had I watched, as it crumbled

into hoary ashes, and mingled with the feathery heap upon the hearth,

which not inaptly figured to me, in my despondency, my own dead hopes.